Children, Conflict, Thomas, Travel and Two Leopards

Beyond the villages that surround Rumbek and further through the thick leafed forest, the water-covered track led us to a series of some of the largest cattle camps of the Dinka Agaar. Arriving just as the cows were returning to be milked, the young boys rushed to tether their herds before the girls started milking. Fresh, warm milk was offered to us as guests as we sat on small, dung covered grass mats beneath the trees. The children happily slurped away as the milk started flowing. A scattering of guns still surrounded the camp. Despite attempts at disarmament, people's lack of confidence in security has made it hard for them to give up their armed protection. "We need our guns to survive", one man explained. As I listened to this familiar narrative again, I realised that soon I would be leaving these cattle camps of Lakes and Unity. My time of learning from these cattle keepers, for now, has come to an end.

Please pray for:
1) The Children of Cattle Camps
Lavishly fed on rich milk and entertained by the excitement of the gathered camp, childhood amongst the cattle can seem heavenly. Especially in seasons of rich pasture, it can seem that they want for nothing. Yet, these cattle camps can be violent. Two people had recently been shot at night and buried in a camp adjacent to where we sat. While the children are sent to the camps to access the goodness of the milk, they are left vulnerable to the violence of the raiding. Pray for their safety.


2) Conflict Mitigation
On Tuesday, in Juba, I have the opportunity to speak to a handful of influential international actors who work on conflict mitigation in South Sudan. I will share with them some of the messages from the cattle camps. Pray that I have wisdom and understanding to speak with justice and mercy. I still cannot quite think what I should say. Pray too that these actors might have some influence in mitigating conflict and brining peace. Sometimes it can appear a slow and impossible task.

3) Teacher Thomas
Thomas is one of the Kenyan teachers who volunteered to teach in Marol this year. As he is in the village in South Sudan, he missed his university graduation last week. He was the first to graduate from university in his family. Therefore, missing the ceremony was a great sacrifice for him and his parents. Pray that they know the blessings of this sacrifice and feel at peace with the decision.

4) Safe Travel
I am now starting my journey home to England for a little rest and to do a little academic work (presenting papers at a couple of conferences). I fly to Juba on Monday, Nairobi on Tuesday and England on the night of the 1st July. Please pray that my time in England is renewing and filled with wise decisions directed by God's whisper. There are decisions to be made.

PS. In a slightly more surreal moment, today I played with two baby leopards. Having been mistakenly taken from their mother by soldiers a few days ago and handed to wildlife official, today they were given to a Kenyan in Rumbek to look after. They are too young to survive without feeding. She let me spend a lazy Sunday afternoon assisting her. Sometimes, it is a pleasure to be distracted.

Of the Nuer Speaking Lands

Across the flat, tree-less swamps of southern Unity State and passed the hundreds of happily grazing cows, you stumble across the slight higher lands that allow the settlement of Ganyliel. Just two hours walk from a small port on the Nile, traders fill the market with goods from further afield. In the early evening, the market is also scattered with boys selling the fish they have just caught in the surrounding waters. At about this time of year and until November, when the rains start to pour down on South Sudan, the swamps rise and this higher settlement becomes an island of muddy clay in this vast swamp. They are a population only reached through the water and on boats that come up the Nile. Yet, taken early in the war by the SPLA and due to its proximity to the Nile, Ganyliel grew to be a strategic centre for various battles and populations during the war. Long a pastoralist community, the war-time armament and military training has left a new era of deadly cattle raiding with surrounding communities. Over two dozen people were killed during a raid into a neighbouring state in the couple of weeks I was there.


Pray For:
1) The Cattle-Keepers of Surrounding Ganyliel
Their lives are rich in milk, companionship and the beauty of their landscape and livestock. Yet, the encroaching changes of war-time and peace-time South Sudan seem a burden to them. Many are still dying. Pray for wisdom and understanding of the leaders amongst them and the leaders who have power over them.
2) People Working in Ganyliel During the 1990s and heavy years of fighting, charities and the UN poured into the county surrounding Ganyliel to support its people. They encouraged agriculture, provided basic education and health care. Yet, soon after the peace, with new demands on the charities, almost all of them left. It is a remote and difficult place to work. Yet, it is also an area with much need: there is no secondary school in the county; there is no functioning hospital in the county, with the only health clinics are few clinics; there are only a couple of cars in the county so people cannot access services outside. There is now one charity providing health care for the county, with two foreign workers (a Ugandan and a Kenyan). Pray that they are strong and compassionate for the work ahead.

Further north, as you travel along a more dusty road and through a familiar-looking, Southern Sudanese forest, the road suddenly becomes surrounded with a dense collection of palm trees. They only subside to make way for small homes, tidily fenced with the leaves of the palms. Nyal is another large village in this Nuer-speaking county. Adjacent to a large lake, fish, sugar cane, maize, sorghum, mangoes and groundnuts are eaten in season in this little oasis. It almost seems that God did not deny Nyal anything when he gave fruits to its soil. For the few nights I was there, I would swim in the lake with the children before retreating to the swept and organised home of a local lady for fresh, white, fried fish. Caught that afternoon, it could not have been sweeter. It was a truly beautiful place.

 Pray that one day South Sudan will have the infrastructure for villages like Nyal to share its abundance with surrounding villages and the rest of the land. When you see such an oasis, you wonder how any one in South Sudan can sleep hungry. Yet, to the nearest town is a ten hour drive in a Land Cruiser. There is no way out for the food.